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There was a “significant increase” in the proportion of complaints about smart meters in the final quarter of 2020, Ofgem’s latest consumer perception survey has found.
More than 3,200 customers were surveyed in November and December last year for the latest iteration of the survey, which has been running since late 2018.
It revealed that the proportion of complaints that were about smart meter problems significantly increased; up to 29 per cent from 15 per cent in the previous quarter.
Overall however, customers are more satisfied with their smart meter (72 per cent) compared with the beginning of the year (67 per cent in Q1).
This morning (9 March) the latest smart meter installation statistics were published by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) which reported 3.2 million smart and advanced meters were installed by suppliers during 2020.
As of 31 December 2020, there were 23.6 million smart and advanced meters in homes and small businesses in Great Britain, of which 19.1 million were smart in smart mode or advanced meters.
Of the 23.6 million meters, 15.7 million are first-generation SMETS1, 6.7 million are SMETS2 and 1.3 million are advanced. The number of smart meters operating in smart mode at the end of 2020 increased by 2.6 million since the end of 2019.
More than a third of all meters are smart meters in smart mode or advanced meters, rising to 42 per cent when including smart meters in ‘dumb’ mode.
BEIS said Q2 2020 saw the greatest impact on the rollout which was due to the pandemic. Since then however, quarterly data provided by large suppliers shows that installation numbers are rising, with Q4 2020 levels increasing by 14 per cent on Q3.
According to the latest information from the Data Communications Company (DCC) as of 4 March more than 10.5 million smart meters were connected to its secure network. Of these more than 6.8 million are SMETS2 while more than 3.6 million SMETS1 meters have been migrated.
Satisfaction with bills
Elsewhere, Ofgem’s consumer perception survey reported satisfaction with the accuracy of energy bills increased to its highest level yet recorded at 77 per cent.
Satisfaction with the ease of understanding a bill was also high at 76 per cent, again the highest recorded.
Problems with consumer communication
The survey also reported customers having greater problems with online communication with their supplier.
Unsuccessful contact via web forms has increased, with 21 per cent trying to contact their supplier via this method being unable to. This is compared with 7-14 per cent between Q1 2019 and Q3 2020.
Live webchat has also become more problematic (25 per cent trying were unable to make contact vs 20 per cent Q3 2020 and 13 per cent Q2).
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